That afternoon, Hestia returned to her church carrying a huge pile of food. After that, she headed out again to continue her job hunt.
Even though Alice had helped solve their food problem, daily life required more than just meals.
Bell had only just become an adventurer, and the Hestia Familia had no senior members to guide him—everything depended on his own hard work.
The Dungeon was a dangerous place.
Right now, Bell wasn't yet a true adventurer—just a passionate boy who'd received a Blessing but had nothing particularly special about him.
So, until Bell grew into a real adventurer, Hestia felt responsible for supporting him during this period.
That's why, in the afternoon, she rushed off to interview with the auntie who sold fried potato balls.
Alice also left her room.
Since she'd given a week's worth of ingredients to Hestia, she now needed to restock.
Whether it was Hestia or that Bell Cranel she hadn't met yet, both of them could really put food away.
Or rather, Hestia and Bell Cranel had perfectly normal appetites—it was Alice's that was unusually small.
A few pieces of meat, a couple of small bread rolls, and a cup of water—multiply that by three, and you'd have what Alice ate in a whole day.
But even ten times that amount wouldn't be enough for an adventurer's single meal.
The abnormal one was Alice, not Hestia or Bell Cranel.
Walking through the streets of Orario, Alice still wore her cloak. Her looks were simply too striking, and with so many people around, causing a commotion was the last thing she wanted.
In her hand, she held her little purse, calculating how to spend what was inside.
'Three hundred thousand valis… Yesterday, between my share of the food and materials for my dolls, I spent around two hundred thousand. That leaves roughly a hundred and twenty thousand.'
'With a gluttonous goddess and a growing boy to feed, this money probably won't last more than a few days.'
Alice quietly did the math.
If it were just her, a hundred and twenty thousand valis would last two or three months.
But for people in this world, it might only cover a month—or even less, if they wanted to eat well.
'My expenses are about to go up… If I were who I used to be, I probably couldn't afford to feed two extra people.'
A slight smile touched Alice's lips.
In the past, she had survived by selling dolls. Although the Hephaestus Familia offered high prices for puppets, Alice never sold hers for much. After buying her current house, she'd been left completely broke.
Later, because of her reluctance to engage with outsiders, few people ever made it into her little shop.
So even though doll prices had risen, after deducting material costs, her income was honestly less than what she could earn dungeon crawling.
After all, hunting monsters in the dungeon was a zero-cost business—all it took was strength.
Now, even though feeding two extra people meant much higher expenses, Alice didn't feel cheated.
Divine Script—the writing used by the gods of this world.
Alice, who likely hailed from Gensokyo, had only learned the common language of this world.
As for Divine Script, something almost no one understood, she naturally couldn't read it at all.
Now someone was willing to teach her that knowledge, and the cost was just two more mouths to feed. Such a trivial price—who wouldn't call that a fantastic deal? She'd practically stumbled upon a stroke of luck.
'I wonder if there are any textbooks on Divine Script here in Orario…' Alice made her way toward Babel.
Babel was the most magnificent structure in Orario.
Although the upper levels served as the base of the Freya Familia, many other floors were rented out to production-type familias.
For example, the Hephaestus Familia had leased several floors, using them as both shops and Hephaestus's residence—effectively making it their home base.
The Goibniu Familia, also blacksmiths, didn't get along with Hephaestus's group and hadn't rented any space in Babel.
The Hermes Familia, openly a commerce-oriented familia, also had their businesses in the tower.
The Ganesha Familia—while their top-tier adventurers weren't as strong as Loki's or Freya's, they had the most members and solid mid-level strength. Many dungeon drop items were sold by them here.
The Soma Familia's divine wine was highly popular, but production was extremely limited, so they had no shop.
The Miach Familia produced potions, but they were fairly poor and short on funds. The familia only had one member now—all the others had left long ago.
Aside from their partnership with the Hermes Familia, Miach's potions were only sold in their own small shop. They didn't have a storefront in Babel.
In addition to the shops run by various familias, there was also a library established by the Adventurer's Guild, filled mostly with books collected by the Guild.
Some familia members would compile their discoveries into books for publication, and these works also ended up in the library.
But after browsing for quite a while, Alice flipped through the book in her hand one last time and returned it to the shelf.
She'd repeated this action at least a dozen times.
'Sigh… Nothing but nonsensical hero stories. There's some magic knowledge too, but most of it is just made-up autobiographies that have nothing to do with actual magic.'
'There's plenty on combat techniques, but it's all surface-level stuff—basics upon basics, nothing advanced whatsoever.'
'Same goes for Divine Script…'
Alice found the situation frustrating, but she could understand it.
Knowledge was precious—to anyone, to any familia. Although the gods might generously share what they knew, that openness didn't extend to the outside world.
Hephaestus would only pass on blacksmithing skills to her own children.
Magic was even more tightly held. Leaving aside that only elves could naturally learn magic in this world—other races could only acquire it through leveling up with a Blessing.
Even though it was nearly impossible for other races to learn magic through conventional means, you didn't see elves openly sharing their spells either.
Maybe some had demonstrated it, but Alice had never seen it.
And even if they were willing to share, learning likely came at a high price—after all, knowledge was priceless.
Divine Script might seem useless, but it was still knowledge held by the gods.
Being able to learn it for the cost of a few meals—Alice considered herself very fortunate.
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